Speeches, Addresses, and Occasional Sermons, Volume 3 (of 3)Parker, Theodore
Religion
Speeches, Addresses, and Occasional Sermons, Volume 3 (of 3)
Parker, Theodore
Sermons, American; Unitarianism
Nothing will be done without toil--talent is only power of work, and
genius greater power for higher forms of work--nothing without
self-denial; nothing great and good save by putting your idea before
yourself, and counting it dearer than your flesh and blood. Let it hide
you, not your obesity conceal the truth God gave you to reveal. The
quality of intellectual work is more than the quantity. Out of the
cloudy world Homer has drawn a spark that lasts three thousand years.
"One, but a lion," should be the scholar's maxim; let him do many things
for daily need; one great thing for the eternal beauty of his art. A
single poem of Dante, a book for the bosom, lives through the ages,
surrounding its author with the glory of genius in the night of time.
One Sermon on the Mount, compact of truths brought down from God, all
molten by such pious trust in Him, will stir men's hearts by myriads,
while words dilute with other words are a shame to the speaker, and a
dishonor to men who have ears to hear.
It is a great charity to give beauty to mankind; part of the scholar's
function. How we honor such as create mere sensuous loveliness! Mozart
carves it on the unseen air; Phidias sculptures it out from the marble
stone; Raphael fixes ideal angels, maidens, matrons, men, and his triple
God upon the canvas, and the lofty Angelo, with more than Amphionic
skill, bids the hills rise into a temple which constrains the crowd to
pray. Look, see how grateful man repays these architects of beauty with
never-ending fame! Such as create a more than sensuous loveliness, the
Homers, Miltons, Shakspeares, who sing of man in never-dying and
creative song--see what honors we have in store for such; what honor
given for what service paid! But there is a beauty higher than that of
art, above philosophy and merely intellectual grace: I mean the
loveliness of noble life; that is a beauty in the sight of man and God.
This is a new country, the great ideas of a noble man are easily spread
abroad; soon they will appear in the life of the people, and be a
blessing in our future history to ages yet unborn. A few great souls can
correct the licentiousness of the American press, which is now but the
type of covetousness and low ambition; correct the mean economy of the
State, and amend the vulgarity of the American church, now the poor
prostitute of every wealthy sin.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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